Illness caused two baritones to bow out, plus an indisposed tenor on the night of the first performance. But soprano Golda Schultz, the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and Orchestra, led by Franz Welser-Möst, ultimately revelled in Haydn’s late masterpiece.

Simon Rattle and the combined forces of the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus dazzled in a large-scale rendition of Haydn's oratorio that retained the speed, dexterity and precision of a period-instrument performance.

Are there musical works, even pieces generally considered to be masterpieces, that no longer can catch the listening public’s interest, no matter how expertly they are performed? I have been wrestling with this question since this weekend’s Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus performance of Haydn’s The Seasons.